It goes without saying that the month of July is an important one for college basketball programs. With there being three five-day open recruiting periods, coaches are traveling the country to keep tabs on prospects they’ve already been following while also learning more about those who they may not have seen during the high school season and the lone open period of the spring (late April).

This is also an important time for current players, as many are going through summer school while also being put through the paces by their program’s strength and conditioning staff in preparation for the upcoming year. Support staff members, including graduate assistants and managers, can’t be forgotten either during July for two reasons.

First of all, they can help keep an eye on things in the office while the head coach and his assistants are on the road recruiting. And secondly the added knowledge they pick up working camps and attending seminars can prove beneficial not only to the staffer from a career advancement standpoint, but also in regards to making them a more valuable member of their current program.

Later this month Rising Coaches Elite, a program founded by three former Clemson staffers (former Longwood assistant Andy Farrell, current Mississippi State director of basketball operations Adam Gordon and current Miami University assistant Trey Meyer), will hold its fifth annual conference from July 22-24 in Las Vegas. The location helps in that this runs right into the third open period of the month, with Las Vegas hosting three separate grassroots events.

And with the number of coaches due to show up in Las Vegas, this helps with the process of finding speakers for the event. Among those currently scheduled to speak are Chattanooga head coach Will Wade, Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon, Arizona assistant Joe Pasternack and Georgetown assistant Kevin Sutton.

“We are a grassroots organization that wants to focus on two things,” Farrell told NBC Sports. “First, develop lifelong friendships in the profession through networking and brainstorming of ideas. Second, we want to learn how to be assistant coaches and head coaches from some of the highest level coaches in the game.

“These coaches will also share insights on how to do our current jobs better, how to continue to serve the game of basketball the right way, and how to better ourselves as future coaches.”

And for the second year in a row the Rising Athletic Directors conference will run in conjunction with Rising Coaches Elite, allowing young coaches and administrators to not only learn from those experienced in their respective fields but also network with each other as they look to climb through the ranks.

“Over the past 4 years, we have been able to connect coaches from all over the country with one another, that have led to a variety of positive experiences,” noted Farrell. “Some attendees have gotten jobs directly from meeting speakers, some attendees have been able to get reccommended for jobs from their peers they’ve met, and other have been able to use this conference as a platform to grow their network to learn the game at a higher level and enhance their own development and job responsibilities.”